, early precursor to probably the most, if not hillary clinton, loved politician today, chris christie, straight talking, who he is, the embodiment of a region, unapologetically, and obviously stylistically very different but kind of built from the same mold. he was one of the greatest. >> he was another of the generation of these guys, these leaders, that we're losing now to who served in world war ii, was drafted in 1943, landed on a beach in france in 1944, you know, by the time he was 20 something years old and then went on to do all these great things. and he was still, until the end, a fighter. he was smart. he was funny. he'd come on msnbc and get into charming -- if aggressive fights over questions. >> you put that in quotes. >> about new york. he was the mayor of the city at a difficult time, too, donny. new york was not a pretty face when he came into office in 1978. >> a very difficult time. some of new york's toughest times. >> absolutely. remember things in the mid-'70s with the ford administration, the sense that new york was on its own and was going down. koch became the
